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Anheuser-Busch — which has one of its largest breweries in the San Fernando Valley — is marking a century of business in California.

The company’s flaks say they are marking the occasion with a year-long awareness campaign. To kick it off, they are sending souvenir items to state “decision makers,” like a customized bottle of Budweiser. Imagine the excitement when thirsty lawmakers open the bottle and find not beer, but a promotional map of the company’s holdings in the Golden State. Whoo-hoo!

By the way, I used to live in Northridge about a mile from the brewery, and I can tell you, there’s nothing like the pungent smell of fermenting yeast and hops to, well, make you never want to drink beer again. But, as an American male in the age 21-35 demographic, I was always a little curious about the place. So in honor of the company’s California anniversary, here are a few by-the-numbers factoids about the Van Nuys brewery:

The “Anheuser-Busch Los Angeles Brewery,” opened in 1954, employs about 900 people with a payroll of $100 million.

The 1.7 million square-foot factory produces some 12 million barrels of beer every year. It brews at least 19 different brands, including Budweiser, Michelob and Busch, but also something called “Hurricane High Gravity” as well as Bud Japan and Kirin Ichiban.

About 320 trucks travel in and out of the facility every day. It serves the western United States, Hawaii and 40 export markets.

Statewide, the company employs more than 11,000 Californians in a variety of facilities including distributors, a regional sales office in Westlake Village, and, of course, let’s not forget SeaWorld.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has managed to keep his team together for nearly two years, is losing one of his top aides.
Deputy Mayor Marcus Allen, who has overseen the administrative side of the mayor’s office in working with city agencies, told the mayor he is leaving to go into private business with Arnie Berghoff, one of the top lobbyists in the city.
“We are going to miss him,” Villaraigosa said. “I didn’t want to lose him, but it was a matter of money. He has a family and the city could only pay so much.”
Allen came to Villaraigosa after working as chief deputy to City Controller Laura Chick. Before that, he worked in the chief legislative analyst’s office after having worked for then-Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.
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Allen is joining a joint venture with Berghoff and Harvey Englander and will be a partner with the two. He is scheduled to leave his city service and start with the new firm in early July.

As mentioned earlier in this blog, this is a busy week in the state Legislature as there are several deadlines approaching to pass legislation. Here are just a few of the bills by Los Angeles County lawmakers that saw some movement today:

1) Homeless dumping: SB 275 by Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, is aimed at preventing mental hospitals from released discharged patients into areas where there are inadequate services and facilities to care for them. The bill prohibits a hospital from releasing someone to a location other than their residence without that person’s consent. The bill passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee by an 11-4 vote today and now heads to a Senate floor vote.

2) Lost and stolen firearms: Handgun owners would be required to report a theft or loss of a gun within five days under AB 334 by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys. The intent is to prevent owners from reporting a weapon as stolen only after it has been used in a crime and traced back to them. The bill passed the Assembly floor by a 41-33 vote and now heads to the Senate.

3) New citizen voting rights: Newly sworn-in citizens would be allowed to register to vote right up to Election Day under a bill by Sen. Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach. The intent of SB 382 is to allow those who were sworn in close to an election to participate in that vote. The bill passed the Senate 23-14 and now heads to the Assembly.

And it has nothing to do with presidential politics. Gubernatorial politics, maybe. Or, for sure.

By giving Hillary the biggest Latino political endorsement to date, which will be especially helpful in the suddenly important California presidential primary, Antonio assures himself of being able to call in a quid pro quo for Bill and Hillary’s endorsement when the mayor announces his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, as everyone expects him to do.

Those Clinton endorsements will mean a lot more in Antonio’s anticipated statewide run than anything that Barack Obama or any of the other Democratic presidential hopefuls can offer.

Even as it scrambles to add 600 officers by 2009, the LAPD has slashed its recruiting budget by nearly 70 percent, which some fear will hamper its ability to compete for top-quality applicants, by staff writer Rachel Uranga in today’s Daily News.

While the 2007-08 budget the City Council approved last week boosts funding for the Los Angeles Police Department by 4.5 percent – to $1.2 billion – it also cuts money for recruiting from $3.2 million to $1 million.

Those trying to identify and lure qualified candidates say their task will become more difficult with such tight resources.

“It’s going to be tough because the name of the game in recruitment is advertisement,” said Cmdr. Kenneth Garner, who heads the LAPD’s recruiting operation.

Members of the LAPD team find themselves sitting shoulder to shoulder with other peace-officer recruiters at job fairs and reading federal recruiting ads on the backs of buses as they sit in traffic.

“We are going to have to be even more aggressive than we are now,” Garner said. “You almost have to be like an athletic recruiter because the best candidates have their choice of where to go.”